How To Enter A General Journal Entry

What you need to know: 

A general journal entry is used to record accounting adjustments that are not entered through regular transactions. You may need to complete a general journal entry to record year-end adjustments, depreciation/amortization, transfer balances between capital asset account classes, correct account balances, or match your trial balance to your accountant’s records. 

What you need to do: 

Before you complete a journal entry, gather the following: 

  • account numbers to debit and credit 

  • dollar amounts 

  • effective date 

  • clear description of the adjustment 

  • any supporting information from your accountant such as: Trial Balance, capital asset records, or year-end documents 

How to (Step by Step): 

1) To start a general journal entry: 

  • Click the Quick Action Menu (orange + sign), select General journal or  

  • Click More on the left menu, select General journal, click New entry and select General Journal from the drop-down menu. 

2) Enter a Description of your journal entry.  The Reference field is optional but allows you to add additional context to the transaction. 

3) Enter the Date of your journal entry using the calendar or by manually typing the month, day, and year. 

4) If you wish to include any documents as Attachments, click Add to browse your computer to attach the documents. 

5) Select an Account using the drop-down menu.  You may add a Description for the line if you wish. 

6) Enter the Debit or Credit amount for the Account selected.  You can also enter a Quantity, if necessary. 

7) Click Add a row to include additional entries and follow the previous two steps. 

8) Continue adding rows until your entry is complete. 

  • Note: Your Debit and Credit columns must match before you can complete the entry. 

9) Click Notes to enter any additional information about the entry. 

10) Click Save.  

Examples 

The following are common journal entry examples: 

  • Annual amortization 

One of the most common journal entries is to recognize the depreciation based on your current capital asset holdings, purchases, and sales.  Debit the depreciation expense account and credit the appropriate capital asset accumulated depreciation account.  

  • Note: This entry will not affect the fair market value of your individual capital assets.  Fair market value still needs to be updated at least on an annual basis. 

  • Transfer a capital asset to a different class 

To transfer the value of the asset, credit to the original class and debit to a new class.   

  • Note: This entry will change the balances but will not affect the individual capital asset. For this, edit the original purchase transaction, and change the account to the correct class number.   

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